To modern man, the Middle Ages seem gray and terrible. Meanwhile, there were many interesting things: a new life was taking shape, cities were separated from villages, artisans united in workshops and guilds. In the XIII century, workshops were already in cities throughout Europe; over the next two centuries they became powerful; then lost their importance, losing out to capitalist factories oriented towards the broad market.
The guilds of masons, or masons, were not the oldest or most influential of the other guilds. And yet they were different from the rest. The difference was that the Freemasons had separate work and mental functions. The doctors knew how to heal and healed themselves; dyers knew how to dye fabrics and dyed themselves; Shoemakers knew how to make shoes, and they themselves did it - and in the masons' union, workers put walls and bridges, and other people counted and drew them: architects, mathematicians.
When the mind is a priority
And at the same time it was a united union! Thus, the London workshop of the Freemasons was called "The Holy Workshop and the Brotherhood of Freemasons." The mental part, the Brotherhood, separated from the workers' workshop only towards the end of the 15th century.
Another difference between bricklayers and other workshops was that the Brotherhood accepted into its ranks people who were generally far from building, apparently for those considerations that any thinker could be useful for the cause.
The oldest documented case of participation in the Masonic labors of a non-builder relates to the Edinburgh Lodge of Scotland: on June 3, 1600, Sir John Boswell, Lord of Ochinleck, was present at the meeting, far from being a builder.
The third difference is the freedom of movement of Freemasons. In those days, all taxable strata of society were required to comply with strict laws on settlement, and builders had the right to travel from city to city to participate in the construction of castles, palaces, cathedrals and bridges. Bricklayers were the only taxable inhabitants of England and other countries who were allowed to move freely!
Promotional video:
They began to be called free mason, "free masons".
When began the decline of the guild system (not bypassed and the workshop of masons). The Brotherhood survived, retaining the title of Freemasons.
And already this designation - franc-macon - came from France, where "free masons" were also very popular.
Distinguishing arts and sciences
Medieval arts were divided into "free" and "mechanical". "Free" were grammar and rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic and geometry, astronomy and music. "Mechanical" stretched from blacksmith, carpentry and construction business to healing and acting. The division between them was along the line of thinking and doing.
Freemasonry turned out to be important because many "free" arts developed within its framework for a long time and only then separated from it. On the other hand, the "mechanical" arts developed as technology matured. Many workshops employed people who were involved in knowledge, but formally they could not become members of these workshops. And they were taken into Masons. As a result, alchemists and others joined the architects and geometers of the Brotherhood of Masons. These Masons transformed the "mechanical" arts into true sciences, namely physics and chemistry.
In 1645, the “father of scientific chemistry,” the Freemason Robert Boyle founded the Circle of London and Oxford Professors, which in 1662 became the Royal Society of Natural Sciences. The irreversible process of the formation of independent sciences began.
The beginning of the revival
Primary Freemasons believed that, with knowledge, they could manage social processes. But in fact, the laws of evolution "managed" with them themselves: first gave birth to their "mental" Brotherhood, and then divided their activities into science and art, and then into scientific disciplines and types of arts.
During this process, Masonic fraternities disappeared almost everywhere.
Their revival took place in the 1720s, when members of the Royal (Scientific) Society drew attention to the surviving small Masonic groups in London. They simply intended to study Freemasonry as an interesting social object: for example, Dr. Stackley hoped to discover the remnants of the ancient mysteries in Freemasonry. For the sake of success, he wished to join the London Lodge and found that his reception was the first in many years! To perform the rituals, the necessary number of initiates was not even immediately found.
Then people of the reformist mentality, so to speak, the creative intelligentsia, were drawn to this rudiment of the past. They found a club here to discuss their utopian ideas about the possibility of building a "just society". It would be difficult for them to do this outside the club, because the authorities watched the free-thinkers.
By this time, the old contradictions between church and state were mostly settled. The Church sanctified the power of monarchies; secular authorities gave privileges to the church. The growing Masonic organization, which consisted almost entirely of anti-religious people, turned out to be an enemy of both the church and the state - is it so surprising that in 1738 the pope issued a bull condemning the Freemasons as a harmful sect?
Long before that - in the hoary antiquity - so that the members of the brotherhood could recognize "their own" in their wanderings, they developed a sophisticated system of secret signs and rituals. Now, when the new Masons wanted to intervene in the sphere of interests of the authorities, this secret system turned out to be very useful. And the "specialness" of the lodges and a certain mystery made them attractive for "thinking people" of the oppositional nature. Not only in England, but also in other countries, a rapid increase in the number of Freemasons and the number of their lodges began.
In the French lodges, outstanding philosophers and enlighteners conducted the ideological preparation of the revolution. They were Voltaire, Condorcet, Danton, Brissot, Desmoulins, Houdon, the Montgolfier brothers, Diderot, d'Alembert, Montesquieu, Rousseau and hundreds of others. Without a doubt, without the participation of Freemasonry, the Great French Revolution would not have happened.
And it happened, giving an example of a power change. The Masons put forward Napoleon as a conductor of their ideas, and they overthrew him and exiled him when he played his game.
In England, by the end of the 18th century, a high-class and titled element predominated in Freemasonry.
In Russia, the Freemasons of different cities understood their tasks in different ways: in St. Petersburg they were fond of mysticism and spiritualism; in Moscow, they were engaged in education. The printing house of the Mason Novikov alone has published more books than have been published in the entire previous history of the country!
In Germany, the Illuminati Order has put forward a program of power change based on the education and enlightenment of the people. It said: “All members of the society, the cherished goal of which is the world revolution, must imperceptibly and without apparent persistence extend their influence to people of all classes, all nationalities and all religions; must educate the mind in one known direction, but this must be done in deep silence and with all possible energy."
At that time and later, practically all political parties represented in the further history of Europe were formed from among the Masons.
Museum exhibit
Freemasonry was once popular in America. Their society included 14 US presidents; freemasons came up with the design of the dollar; participated in laying the foundation stone for the Statue of Liberty. However, during the second half of the 20th century, the number of active Freemasons has been constantly decreasing and now it has come to the point that they literally invite people to join their ranks. However, all over the world, Freemasonry is turning into a museum brand: Freemasons conduct open excursions to their lodges, and are willingly filmed for television.
Their time has passed, and if someone is fanning the myth of their omnipotence, it is only in order to divert people's attention from those who actually influence world politics …
Magazine: Mysteries of History №48. Author: Dmitry Kalyuzhny
